Spring home and away
A Spring morning started off rather noisily at home on Wednesday with many decibels emitted by the small dog from her preferred position. This was the cause:
Evidently the lad on the left reckoned he was "hard enuf" as he sank his toes right inna der fork (a technical term borrowed from the Ankh-Mrpork City Watch) of his conspecific. It was then on for all concerned, until I got fed up with the noise from the bedroom and hurled a wellie at them.
This morning was a bit more peaceful and, in the absence of a bogus weather forecast - another difference to yesterday - I went for a walk in a reserve off Urriara Rd to see what was there. I was hoping for orchids and my hopes rose dramatically when I found a patch of at least 200 flowers of Cyanicula caerulea soon after setting off. This is about 5% of the area and working on the image I find I marked 13 flowers (in some cases two plants very close togther).with red circles..
I know I have shown lots of these but they are pretty!
A little later I found a lone Petalochilus fuscata. They also get repeat images on the spiffy rule.
A keen orchid lover friend has commented that taking notice of 'evidence of orchids' is the first step on a very slippery path but I thought these Thelymitra leaves were almost pretty enough in and of themselves.
[Putting in a virtual parenthesis, when we got home I went to check more closely on the Waxlip (Glossodia major) situation. Getting down and dirty I found a whole lot of buds. Perhaps we are only a week or so off some flowers.?]
Back at Urriara there were quite a bunch of flowers around. Some of the hillsides had a huge number of Leucopogon fletcheri mixed ni with other non-flowering - or in some cases dead - bushes. That didn't photograph well but here is a close-up.
The other heath I found was Brachyloma daphnoides, which I consider has a very attractive flower. Theer are other views on this but you be the judge,
Early nancys formed drifts in an open area.
A faintly ringed male ...
.. and an obviously fertilised female.
Evidently the lad on the left reckoned he was "hard enuf" as he sank his toes right inna der fork (a technical term borrowed from the Ankh-Mrpork City Watch) of his conspecific. It was then on for all concerned, until I got fed up with the noise from the bedroom and hurled a wellie at them.
This morning was a bit more peaceful and, in the absence of a bogus weather forecast - another difference to yesterday - I went for a walk in a reserve off Urriara Rd to see what was there. I was hoping for orchids and my hopes rose dramatically when I found a patch of at least 200 flowers of Cyanicula caerulea soon after setting off. This is about 5% of the area and working on the image I find I marked 13 flowers (in some cases two plants very close togther).with red circles..
I know I have shown lots of these but they are pretty!
A little later I found a lone Petalochilus fuscata. They also get repeat images on the spiffy rule.
A keen orchid lover friend has commented that taking notice of 'evidence of orchids' is the first step on a very slippery path but I thought these Thelymitra leaves were almost pretty enough in and of themselves.
[Putting in a virtual parenthesis, when we got home I went to check more closely on the Waxlip (Glossodia major) situation. Getting down and dirty I found a whole lot of buds. Perhaps we are only a week or so off some flowers.?]
Back at Urriara there were quite a bunch of flowers around. Some of the hillsides had a huge number of Leucopogon fletcheri mixed ni with other non-flowering - or in some cases dead - bushes. That didn't photograph well but here is a close-up.
The other heath I found was Brachyloma daphnoides, which I consider has a very attractive flower. Theer are other views on this but you be the judge,
Early nancys formed drifts in an open area.
A faintly ringed male ...
.. and an obviously fertilised female.
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